More than 150,000 asteroids have been catalogued by NASA since 2011. The lead to the story reassuringly states that while “thousands of asteroids are passing through Earth’s neighborhood” at any given time, “odds of a direct hit on the planet any time soon are slim.” But, writer Kenneth Chang quickly adds, “even a small asteroid the size of a house could explode with as much energy as an atomic bomb.”

However, that’s not the news. What’s new is that some scientists are no longer laughing at a man with a physics doctorate who has insisted that NASA’s data is “flawed and unreliable” and scientists “know less than they think” about asteroids.

Thank you, Mr. Chang. I’ll be on the lookout for big rocks instead of big missiles. Meanwhile, could you let me know if “Earth’s neighborhood” is anywhere near Saratoga Springs, N.Y.?